What is property?

Property can be thought of as a collection of rights. Namely, those rights are:

           

            1. The right to possess the property

            2. The right to use the property

            3. The right to exclude others from use of the property

            4. The right to transfer the property

            5. The right to destroy property

When considering these rights, does a person have a property interest in their own blood? According to Moore v. UCLA Board of Regents the answer to that question is no. In that case the Plaintiff sued his doctor for exploiting the use of his excised cells and matter. However the court gave three reasons why Plaintiff had no such property interest in his cells:

1. No precedent indicating a person retained a property interest in his/her cells

2. California Law limits ownership of excised cells after discharge

3. The patented cell line cannot be Moore’s property

There was an interesting dissent to this decision in which the point was made, if your own blood isn’t your property – what is?  In considering what is/what is not property there are many aspects one must consider, and many areas are grey. Such is the law.